Showbiz History: Milk baths, hit singles, and Montalban's centennial
Wednesday, November 25, 2020 at 8:00AM 7 random things that happened on this day (Nov 25th) in showbiz history...
1932 Claudette Colbert infamously bathes in milk in Cecil B DeMille's The Sign of the Cross, new in theaters.
1947 The Hollywood Blacklist begins, denying employment to those with perceived Communist ties or sympathies. This period has haunted self-reflecting Hollywood since as witnessed in Trumbo, The Way We Were, Guilty by Suspicion, Good Night and Good Luck, and numerous other movies...
1984 Bob Geldolf's blockbuster charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" recorded in London. The song featured a who's who of British pop stars of the time singing the chorus with Sting, Bono, Boy George, Paul Young, and George Michael on lead vocals...
1992 Aladdin and The Bodyguard both open wide in movie theaters, the day before Thanksgiving and become ginormous hits, before battling it out for Best Original Song at the Oscars with "Friend Like Me" and "A Whole New World" versus "I Have Nothing" and "Run To You." "A Whole New World" wins as Disney theme songs tend to. (I was rooting for "I Have Nothing")
1995 Whitney Houston's "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" from the hit movie Waiting to Exhale hits #1 on the Hot 100. The original song is nominated at the MTV Movie Awards and the Grammy Awards but not the Oscars.
2009 The ultra depressing bestseller adaptation The Road starring Viggo Mortensen opens in theaters. Remember when apocalyptic visions of the future were scary rather than merely glimpses of deadly mass stupidity as in the T**** years?
2013 The soundtrack to Frozen is released, eventually going triple platinum, winning Grammy's Best Soundtrack, Billboard's Album of the Year, and Oscar's Best Original Song for "Let it Go".
Today's Birthday Suit
Today is the centennial of Emmy winner and SAG lifetime achievement winner Ricardo Montalban (1920-2009) who was born in Mexico City on this very day one hundred years ago.
Montalban getting a rubdown in Neptune's Daughter (1949)
In the 1940s and 1950s he was Hollywood's go-to "Latin Lover" before settling into his late career peak via Star Trek The Wrath of Khan (1982) on the big screen and Fantasy Island (1977-1984) on television. In the 80s there was a silly rumor that his chest was prosthetic as the very popular villain "Khan" but all one had to do was look at any of his earlier movie appearances or photoshoots to understand that he was giving manly muscled chest for his entire career.
Other Actors celebrating birthdays today: Sen Liang (23), Cameron Moulène (27), Katie Cassidy (34), Haley Webb (35), Gaspard Ulliel (36), Natalia Cordova-Buckley (38), Amy Seimetz (39), Joel Kinnaman (41), Jang Young-nam (47), Christina Applegate (49), Jill Hennessy (52), Billy Burke (54), Dougray Scott (55), Tony nominee Kevin Chamberlin (57), Emmy winner John Laroquette (73), Tracey Walter (73), Paul Copley (76), Hana Maciuchová (75), and Kathryn Grant (87) who is one of the oldest living film actors.
Other showbiz people celebrating birthdays today: Comic Cole Escola (34), Makeup artist Robert Kurtzman (56), Singer Amy Grant (60), Twin Peaks writer Mark Frost (67), Writer Charlaine Harris (69), classic X-Men comic writer Chris Claremont (70), Director Jonathan Kaplan (73), and Oscar nominated cinematographer Stephen H Burum (80)
Gone but not forgotten: Singer/actress Helen Gahagan (She) born on this day in 1900, Athlete Joe DiMaggio born on this day in 1914, Actress Noel Neill (Superman) born on this day in 1920, Actor Jeffrey Hunter (King of Kings, The Searchers) born on this day in 1926, Screenwriter Murray Schisgal (Tootsie, Luv) born on this day in 1926, and golden son John F Kennedy Jr born on this day in 1960
Reader Comments (14)
That shot of Claudette in her milk bath is a reminder of how much boundaries were pushed in the Pre-Code era, a risqueness which would vanish until the 60's at least in Hollywood.
"Sign of the Cross" has all sorts of pre-code naughtiness and violence- including a Lesbian seduction dance, Nero's almost naked slave boy companion and yes that bath scene- make sure you don't see the 1940s re-release print in which all the fun bits were cut to please the censors.
Montalban was a very handsome hombre- and MGM knew how to exploit his looks
joel6 -- i always wonder what movies would have looked like by the 1960s (and what culture would have looked like by the early 60s) if the Hayes Code hadn't set the movies back in terms of pretending that sexuality was not a thing.
Montalban... My goodness.
Pre-Code Hollywood is so fascinating. The Dietrich / von Sternberg collabs are my favorite movies of that era.
Ricardo Montalban shaved his chest for Wrath of Khan, which led some to speculate that it was a prosthetic. Should I be embarrassed that I know that?
In their youths Montalban and Connery looked eerily similar...
Nathaniel-I'm sure it would have been much more freewheeling and open but I have to admit I love movies that were made during the Code. Not the censors prurient obsession with onscreen passion but the way the restrictions forced the writers to be more inventive with dialog and the creative ways they found to getting their messages across.
"Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" not being nominated for (and winning) Best Original Song is criminal; it's the textbook example of the song fitting the film's narrative like a glove. In fact, the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack should have snatched the Original Song Score prize, too.
joel6 -- oh, i love that about movies in that era too... So much subversive stuff. But i wonder if freedom might have helped some things along much quicker... like LGBTQ civil rights for example.
Amy Grant is terrific; the music video "Every Heartbeat" has a young man in it who slightly resembles John F. Kennedy Jr. whom we lost way too early as did beautiful actor Jeffrey Hunter, who was talked about for a 1960 M-G-M all-male remake (called "Gentlemen's Club") of "The Women" that never reached fruition, in the role of Martin Heal, co-starring Earl Holliman (Christopher Allen), Tab Hunter (Simon Fowler), Lew Ayres (Count Vancott), Robert Wagner (Mitchell Aarons), James Garner (Peter Day), Jerry Mathers (Little Martin), Jimmy Stewart (Mr. Heal), Ronald Reagan (Larry), Troy Donahue (Norman Blake), and Stuart Whitman (Oliver, the bartender).
R.I.P. Diego Armando Maradona... the greatest footballer (soccer for you dumbass Americans) that ever lived....
Right now, he's playing ball with my dad who loved the game.
Gracias Maradona.
Nathaniel-That's an interesting question and it well might have since film at the time was so influential in setting trends. For instance the revolution in dress and hair fashions that Colleen Moore, Clara Bow and Louise Brooks set when they embraced the flapper style sweeping the Edwardian look away in one fell swoop. But the church's grip was still strong (not just the crazy evangelical arm of it) so even without the Code they would have exerted their influence in other more subtle ways to try and impede progress.
I can’t believe John Kennedy Jr. would be 60 this year. I
I’ll remember him as that hunky 30 year old.
Looks like Kathryn Grant is 87, not 97. She is also correctly listed under your 200 OLDEST LIVING SCREEN STARS column.